Ugly

by Bob Wage on Nov 15, 2007 1:47 AM EST

I'm not going to over-analyze the game last night. Quite simply, the Lightning beat the Hurricanes 6-1. Vincent Lecavalier went hog wild, scoring 3 goals and earning 5 points. It was a total team meltdown by Carolina. There is no need to single out any particular player because after the 1st period, almost everything was ugly.

Here are a few questions about last night's fiasco.

Why don't the Canes have someone draped all over Lecavalier? In essence, the Lightning are a one line team. If you can stop that one line, you beat them. You do have a problem though when your whole team can't stop that one line. By the looks of the Canes plus/minus stats, the whole team did have their problems. Seriously though, I think the Canes need to focus more on Lecavalier and not allow him to basically do whatever he wants to do, like he did last night. I would make sure that Brindy was on the ice whenever he was and have Rod shadow him, with Commodore on the ice as well as backup.

Again just like the first game, the Lightning defense outplayed the Canes defense, both offensively and defensively. The defense really needs to step it up, in more ways than one.

Why not play smart hockey? You don't need your best player at the time, sitting in the penalty box for 7 minutes, do you?

Why drop the gloves with 2 minutes to go in a game like this? What's the point? At that stage in the game, everyone just wants to get off the ice and go home. If some injustice was done, put it in the memory bank and get even next game. These two teams will be playing each other again next week, it's not like you have to wait long!

While this was another disappointing loss, the big picture doesn't look that bad for the Canes. All in all, it was a successful 3 game road trip, (4 points earned), the team is still in 1st place in the division, and 2nd place in the conference. They still lead the league in scoring. Considering that they were missing 3 of their top 9 forwards and a starting defenseman to injury, it's not surprising to see a drop off in production. As a matter of fact, for the amount of time that both Walker and Ladd have been out, the results have been surprisingly good. But now it's important to put this game behind them and to focus on the next game against Atlanta on Friday night. The trend so far this year has been to win convincingly immediately after a loss. They have yet to lose 2 games in a row, (in regulation) all year! Hopefully, they can continue that course of action. It won't be easy though against a surging Atlanta team, but more about that in another post on another day!

Bon Jovi

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Comments

Excellent analysis of the game Bubba. The first period was flat for both teams, and after that it was all T. B.

Some things that need to be noted though…

Where was the traffic in front of Grahame on 5 of the six goals? They looked pretty well open for T.B. with the Canes always trailing behind. It was Grahame against the world on most of the goals.

I understand that Williams was frustrated and trying to spark the team with his fight, but why in gods name wasn’t someone else picked to do this? I know, no one condones it ;), but somone with less of a presence should have stepped up and done it first. You know they talk about this, they just don’t “talk” about it.

Grahame had a fight on his hands all night, but looked rather immobile at times, and not very fast to react. Is he sore or hurt? Or was T.B. just too much for this starter wanna be?

Who put the grease on the tape of Carolinas sticks between the first and second periods, as well as the second and third periods? The puck handling looked awful.

Alot of falls out there tonight on Canes players. They couldn’t seem to keep there skates under them very well. Could this be what happens when they lose focus? Or is this perhaps where they get the rep of being divers? Were they trying to draw penalties?

No matter. It is over, they looked like shit, and I am sure none will deny it. Lets get on to Friday, redeem ourselves, and keep pulling ahead. And please, we should stop using the excuse of injured players anymore. I agree that the players that are out are solid contributers, but this team can roll three solid lines without these guys playing. There is no more excuse for using injuries as an excuse. We have too much grit and talent for that.

Later
Sean

by CaniacSean on Nov 15, 2007 2:18 AM EST reply actions

First game this season I turned off before it was over. I didn’t even watch the 3rd period. I’m starting to think they are afraid of tampa or something.

by HANRAHANFAN1 on Nov 15, 2007 11:52 AM EST reply actions